Lexington Scrabble® Club 2004-2005 Season

This reports on the season which ran from September, 2004 through August, 2005.

The Lexington, Massachusetts Scrabble Club #108 has been running
continuously since it was started by Edie Berman and Muriel Sands in
January, 1980. We meet nearly every Thursday night of the year in a
comfy basement meeting room of the First Parish Church, situated on
Lexington Green behind the Lexington Minuteman Statue. Judy Horn has
been directing this club for about 22 years. Ellen Miller serves as
associate director. Mike Wolfberg joined the club within its first
month of existence, and he took on the role of club statistician within
the first year. The club has operated with its own rating system,
designed primarily by Alan Frank, since early 1981. Ratings are based
on the percentage of points each of the players scores in each game.
The club web site includes a detailed description of this system.

This is a report of the highlights of this club's Sep-04 through Aug-05
season. In this season, individuals played 6720 games, and so there were
3360 games in all. The average score in all of these games was 375.
These numbers were 6416, 3208, and 375 for the previous season.

Of the 6720 individual games, 6321 were played by an "active player".
We define an active player as someone who played at least 20 games in
the season. The average score of the active players was 374 for the
season. These numbers were 6060 and 375 for the previous season.

Average attendance thoughout the season was 28, and with 52 sessions,
including a club party celebrating the 25th anniversary of the club.
These statistics indicate that each player plays on the average of 4 2/3
games per session. We realize this is higher than in many other clubs, and
so some of this club's achievements in one season should be understood
in this context.

149 different players have attended the club in the past 2 years.
During the 2004-2005 season there were
58 active players, namely those who played at least 20 games, and here are
the top 20, ordered by decreasing club average rating:

NSA ratings

We usually have about 4-7 players in the top 100 and about 8-10
players in the top 200 in the NSA ratings.

ISC Players

Several of our club members are active at the web-based
Internet Scrabble Club. Our club
roster includes ISC handles for many of these folks.

High Games

The highest game score in a club session during this season
was 649 by Bob Becker. Runner-up was
Mike Wolfberg's 621. These were the only games in the 600's
during this season, down from ten such games in the previous season.
The club record for high game is 709.

Most Games

With 406 games, Trx. Kt. broke the record for the most
games, since it was set at 351 by Jamie Ryan in the
previous season. Trx. averaged playing nearly 8 games per session.

Most Wins

With 222 wins, Jamie Ryan broke the record for the most wins,
breaking his own record of 204 wins, which he established in the previous season.
Runner-up was 207 wins by Mike Wolfberg.

Most Wins in a Session

In a normal club session, albeit a lengthy one,
on 24-Mar-05, Bob Becker won his first 9 games.
Although he played a tenth game, he lost that one.
The record is 12, but at an all-day party.

Most Points

With a total of 138,892 points,
Jamie Ryan broke his own record of 135,187 points,
which he established in the previous season.

Highest percentage above average

Bob Becker had the highest percentage above average
when he scored 649 points in a game on 2-Jun-05.
His percentage above average was 66.1%.
The runner-up was 53.5% by Tim Lutts, when he socred
503 on 31-Mar-05.
We have tracked this statistic only since the 1997-1998 season, and the
club record is 80.6% set in the 2000-2001 season.

Many Bingos by One Player

These players played 5 bingos in one game on various sessions
throughout the season: Judy Horn, Joel Horn, Richard Buck, Aaron Bader.
The club record is 6 bingos.

High Losing Scores and High Total Scores

The second-highest total score in this club was
1046 in a game on 7-Oct-04,
in which Steven Saul defeated Joel Horn 546-500.
The losing of 500 is the highest losing
score in this club's history.
In this phony-free game, the
first five plays were bingos, and each of the players bingoed 4 times.
This game can be viewed here.
Another high total this season was 980,
when Bob Becker defeated Trx. Kt. 588-392 on 2-Jun-05.
The club record is a total of 1062.

High Tie

The highest tie of the season was 442-442 by
Steven Saul and Mike Wolfberg. Runner-up is 374-374 by Judy Horn
and Bob Becker.
The club record is 462-462.

High Bingo

Jake Bergmann scored 230 points for
MITZVAhs, which he played on 11-Nov-04.
The club record is 293 points, and this is the
second-highest high score for a bingo played in this club.

High Non-bingo

On 12-Feb-05 at a club party which was club-rated, John Ezekowitz made
a 105-point non-bingo. John had played the phony
CHINT to end just above the light blue
double letter square on the left bottom row. Then, he hooked this with
ZINGS. Although he did not even consider
the playable bingo he had, John scored more with this non-bingo than
he could have scored with that bingo.
The club record is 109.

High Overlap

In November, 2004, Joel Horn made 6-letter overlaps in each of two
consecutive weeks. On 4-Nov-04, Joel played
ToRSADE underneath
JAILERS ending under the
R.
On 11-Nov-04, he played
IDEATED underneath
STARKER starting under the
T.
We believe the club record is a 7-letter overlap
set in 1980, but we do not recall the specific words.

Long Words

On 13-Jan-05, Bob Becker played the 11-letter word
MOTIVATIONS by adding
MOTIVAT (for 97 points) to
IONS, which his opponent made as
an attempted blocking play. This is the only 11-letter bingo played in
this club.

On 21-Apr-05, Barbara Revkin first played
VACATION for only 62 points (since one
of the 1-point letters was represented by a blank) at
15E, but then on her next play,
she scored 42 by extending it with
ERS to make the 11-letter
word VACATIONERS.

On 9-Jun-05, Bob Becker first played
QUESTION. Later, Chris Kulig added
ER. Subsequently, Bob hooked this with
LUXES,
making the 11-letter word
QUESTIONERS.

On 10-Feb-05, Larry Katz extended MON
to make the 10-letter bingo MONOTHEISM.

High Session Attendance

The highest attendance during this season was
41 players, including 2 new ones,
on 2-Jun-05. The club's record is 44 set in the previous season.
The average attendance during the season was 28, down 1 from the previous
season.

This Club at NSC2005

Twenty-three of our regular club players attended the North American
Scrabble® Championship tournament in Reno, NV August 19 - August 24, 2005.
This page details how the club fared.

Further details for many of the club records mentioned above can be
found on this club's statistics page.